Rare, stinky corpse flower on the verge of blooming at Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes

A stinky corpse flower nicknamed "Musky" is on the verge of blooming at the Mitchell Park Domes.

Curious visitors will have a window of about 48 hours to get a whiff of the notoriously smelly flower once it blooms, which occurs about once every eight years.

Amorphophallus titanum, the flower's official name, is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Domes received a gift of a dormant corm — similar to a bulb or tuber — about 15 years ago from the University of Wisconsin and have since grown 10 corpse flower corms from the original.

Three other corpse flowers have bloomed at the Domes in recent years, each on their own once-in-a-decade timeline. Visitors who flocked in 2018 and again in 2021 to take in the smell described it as akin to their cat's litter box or roadkill.

"It smells very much like rotting flesh," said Mary Braunreiter, the horticulturalist for the tropical dome.

Braunreiter also compared it to a dead mouse one might find days later in a basement trap.

It's not that the plant is rotting, "it smells that way on purpose," Braunreiter said.

On the island of Sumatra, the flower is pollinated by carrion flies and beetles who are drawn to the stinky smell. It's why it doesn't carry the same fragrant scent as flowers pollinated by butterflies and bees.

The corpse flower is the largest unbranched flower in the world, another point of attraction. "Musky" has recently gone through a growth spurt and is over 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

The plant grows a big leaf each year which wilts and then becomes dormant. That's repeated seven to 10 times before a flower arrives.

For now, Domes staff are on bloom-watch. The flower will take a couple hours to open, Braunreiter said, and it will stay open for up to two days. Then it will collapse.

Those who would like to catch a sniff of "Musky" should follow the Mitchell Park Domes Facebook page for updates. People can also call the Domes' main phone line, (414) 257-5600, and listen to the recorded message for updates. It will be found in the tropical dome.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Corpse flower near blooming at Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee